Charlie Sheen under investigation, LAPD says

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Photos:Charlie Sheen through the years

Charlie Sheen has been in the public eye almost as long as the 50 years he's been alive. The actor, seen here in 2013, has appeared in dozens of films, headlined a hit TV show, battled substance abuse, dated porn stars and made numerous headlines for his bad-boy behavior. Here's a look at Sheen's turbulent life and career.

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Photos:Charlie Sheen through the years

As the son of actor Martin Sheen, he had small parts in some of his father's films. The public may have first become aware of him as a thuggish visitor in a police station making conversation with Jennifer Grey in 1986's "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." That same year, Sheen starred in Oliver Stone's Oscar-winning film "Platoon," playing Chris, a soldier in Vietnam caught in a battle between Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger.

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Photos:Charlie Sheen through the years

Sheen and Stone teamed up again in 1987 with "Wall Street," in which Sheen played an up-and-coming broker seduced by Michael Douglas' Gordon Gekko. Douglas' performance won an Oscar, and Sheen's own stock went up.

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Photos:Charlie Sheen through the years

Sheen played relief pitcher Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn in the 1989 baseball comedy "Major League." The box office hit led to a 1994 sequel, "Major League II," also featuring Sheen.

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Photos:Charlie Sheen through the years

After becoming one of the hottest young actors of the '80s, Sheen saw his star dim in the '90s. Here he is in a poster for "Men at Work," a minor comedy that starred him and brother Emilio Estevez as garbagemen who stumble on a nefarious plot.

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Photos:Charlie Sheen through the years

"Terminal Velocity," a 1994 film in which he played a skydiving instructor, fared even worse. Critics wondered whether the film was a goof, comparable to Sheen's "Hot Shots!" parody series. It made just $17 million at the box office on a $50 million budget.

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Photos:Charlie Sheen through the years

By the mid-'90s, Sheen was as famous for being a ladies' man as he was for being a leading man. Known as "the Machine," he dated porn stars, and though Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss kept the names of her clients secret, Sheen testified during her tax-evasion trial that he'd used her services. He also spent time in rehab and was hospitalized for a drug overdose. "Pray for my boy," said his father. "He has appetites that get him into trouble."

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Photos:Charlie Sheen through the years

But after a well-received turn in 1999's "Being John Malkovich" -- in which he played, well, Charlie Sheen -- Sheen was cast as Michael J. Fox's replacement in the hit ABC show "Spin City." Show creator Gary David Goldberg praised him. "He's the first one on the set every morning and the last to leave at night," he said. The show ran until 2002.

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Photos:Charlie Sheen through the years

Sheen rose to the top again with "Two and a Half Man," playing free-spirited jingle writer Charlie Harper. The show was one of the highest-rated on television, and Sheen soon became the highest-paid actor on TV, eventually making close to $2 million an episode. But a rehab stint shut down production in 2010, and he and show creator Chuck Lorre were soon at loggerheads. Sheen was fired after the eighth season.

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Photos:Charlie Sheen through the years

Sheen occasionally popped up in movies in the 2000s, though not of the level of his '80s work. Among them were "Scary Movie 3," seen here with Denise Richards, "Scary Movie 4" and "Scary Movie 5."

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Photos:Charlie Sheen through the years

In 2002, Sheen married Richards. The marriage produced two daughters but was rocky; Richards filed a restraining order against him in 2006 and filed for divorce while pregnant with their second child. Sheen later tried to block the appearance of their children on Richards' reality show and insulted her in the media, a habit he's continued to the present day.

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Photos:Charlie Sheen through the years

Sheen's third marriage, to actress Brooke Mueller, was also contentious. The two married in 2008 and divorced three years later, time that included Sheen's arrest on suspicion of domestic abuse and rehab stints for both. A custody battle ensued after the divorce, but the two are getting along for now.

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Photos:Charlie Sheen through the years

The end of Sheen's marriage to Mueller and his firing from "Two and a Half Men" came in the midst of increasingly erratic behavior. He allegedly trashed a New York hotel room; he went on a radio show and criticized Lorre and Thomas Jefferson, among others; and he filed a lawsuit against Lorre and "Two and a Half Men's" studio, Warner Bros. Television. He joined Twitter and racked up a million followers in just over 24 hours -- a record, said Guinness. His tweets included the hashtags #winning and #tigerblood, both of which became catchphrases. He's shown here with publicist Stan Rosenfield, who resigned from that job in early 2011.

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Photos:Charlie Sheen through the years

In April 2011, he embarked on tour of his one-man show, "My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat Is Not an Option." The first show, in Detroit, went off the rails quickly. "Early in the evening, before the crowd turned sour, there was a creepy atmosphere that suggested group indoctrination into a cult," said a Hollywood Reporter review. And that was before the booing and shouts of "You suck" started. He changed the style to a Q&A for the second show, but the tour never really caught fire.

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Photos:Charlie Sheen through the years

Still, Sheen had enough buzz that he was announced as the lead in "Anger Management," a TV version of the 2003 movie. The series lasted two years on FX. Meanwhile, "Two and a Half Men" ended its run in 2015 with Sheen's character -- who had been assumed dead -- crushed by a piano.

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Photos:Charlie Sheen through the years

Since "Anger," Sheen has had a guest spot on "The Goldbergs" and has popped up occasionally on TMZ. In November 2015 he announced to "Today's" Matt Lauer that he is HIV-positive. The actor said the diagnosis had inspired him to retire his hard-partying ways. "It's a turning point in one's life," he said.

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Story highlights

Charlie Sheen is a suspect in an ongoing criminal investigation, police say

The actor also faces a lawsuit by a former fiancée accusing him of assault

(CNN)Charlie Sheen may be in trouble again.

The actor and Hollywood bad boy is a suspect in an ongoing criminal investigation involving alleged threats Sheen has made, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

The LAPD is not releasing more details at this time or naming the victim, due to the nature of the crime.

The criminal investigation is the latest in a string of bad news for the former "Two and a Half men" star. His former fiancée Scottine Ross filed a lawsuit in December accusing him of assault, battery, false imprisonment and failure to disclose to her that he was HIV-positive.

The lawsuit alleges that, on several occasions, Sheen locked Ross in the bathroom, pushed her, dragged her by the arms, placed her in a chokehold and pointed an unloaded gun at her and repeatedly pulled the trigger.

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Ross, an adult film actress known as Brett Rossi, and Sheen were in a relationship from November 2013 to October 2014, according to the suit.

Sheen's attorney has denied the allegations, saying Ross is trying to extort money from the former "Two and Half Men" star.

Charlie Sheen and former fiancée Scottine Ross, a.k.a. Brett Rossi.

Representatives for Sheen did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment.

The actor has been mostly out of work since his FX series, "Anger Management," was canceled in December 2014. After several years of erratic behavior, Sheen, 50, announced in November that he is HIV-positive and that his hard-partying days were behind him.

The LAPD said its Threat Management Unit is leading the Sheen investigation.